That does look good! If you're looking for a little more color on the crust ring, a nice cheat method is to brush the outer edges of the skin with some olive oil before topping. If you make pepperoni pies, the oil from that cooks off onto and into the edge to help deepen and darken the crust.

Loo

Thanks, I'll try that. The crust was done enough as far as texture I think, I'd just like a bit more color. I actually planned on pepperoni next time, I just picked up a bunch from the deli. I'll post any results but I am actually about to mix up a dough using your Home Run Inn recipe in this forum, so it will have to be next week or so.

The numbers are correct. A teaspoon of salt weighs quite a bit more than a teaspoon of ADY. You can use either a scale or use the volume measurements. If you scale back the amount of dough, for example, to a single dough ball, you might find it easier to use the volume measurements for the ingredients other than the flour and water.

CDNpielover,Are you speaking of the best pie joint around up here. I was there last nite at Red's Savoy Pizza. 9 of us split 3 pies with leftovers to spare for my brides 59th birthday.Jon

mmm, yes Red's Savoy Inn is some of the best pie in the twin cities. i grew up in the burbs, though, and mostly ate Carbone's so I guess that's my favorite old standby... our neighbor also has a couple of Carbone's franchises, so i'm a bit biased because of that too haha.

I've been using 2% milk because that's what we always have on hand here and, yes, I just replaced 33% of the water by weight with milk.

Loo

Hi Loo! tried your 33% milk suggestion. i really liked it. i think it added a bit of crunch to the outside of the crust. with some more air pockets? makes that excellent recipe of yours i think even better! thank you!! what do you find it does for your crust? am i on the right path? thanks again!

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"My Doctor says I swallow a lot of aggression. Along with a lot of pizzas!!"

Hi Loo! tried your 33% milk suggestion. i really liked it. i think it added a bit of crunch to the outside of the crust. with some more air pockets? makes that excellent recipe of yours i think even better! thank you!! what do you find it does for your crust? am i on the right path? thanks again!

To be really honest, and this isn't at all what you are looking for, I don't know what it does versus water alone, but I also like the results. For me to really get a gauge on it I'd probably have to do a side by side where cheese, toppings, and sauce for both pies all come from the same batch.

I finally took some pictures of this recipe and I was finally able to get the crust cooked fully before the cheese started to burn. I've tried everything from putting the pan directly on top of the burner to preheating the oven at a lower temp than cooking and I always ended up with the cheese almost burnt and the dough just starting to cook. I just ended up par-baking the crust for 5 minutes prior to applying the toppings and then cooking at 450 deg. This seemed to work the best out of the previous 12 attempts without par-baking.

Here are pics from the most recent one. The only thing was that it was too thick because I think my electronic scale is off, which caused the dough to be way to wet and caused me to add a lot more flour to get it back to normal. Even with that problem this was the best one yet. Thanks Loo for a great recipe.

Made our first generic thin crust today...worked out wonderful and Chicago Style is really my bag...I did let the dough rise 2 times and was easy to roll out...I used a stone, corn meal on the pizza paddle, 450 degree about 18 minutes middle rack...Great Thanks

I finally took some pictures of this recipe and I was finally able to get the crust cooked fully before the cheese started to burn. I've tried everything from putting the pan directly on top of the burner to preheating the oven at a lower temp than cooking and I always ended up with the cheese almost burnt and the dough just starting to cook. I just ended up par-baking the crust for 5 minutes prior to applying the toppings and then cooking at 450 deg. This seemed to work the best out of the previous 12 attempts without par-baking.

Here are pics from the most recent one. The only thing was that it was too thick because I think my electronic scale is off, which caused the dough to be way to wet and caused me to add a lot more flour to get it back to normal. Even with that problem this was the best one yet. Thanks Loo for a great recipe.

Makes me hungry just lookiing at it!!! Great job!! i too had probs with the crust not getting crispy enough. i would say if you can get a stone( i like the big square one sold at williams sonoma i think it was reasonable 30 bucks?). and then you also have to go hotter i cook at 550. and the stone heats for an hour or more at this temp. Loo helped me with this. i found it cooks in almost exactly 10min. stone on the bottom rack. sometimes i open the oven door for the last min or 2, if i think the cheese is getting too brown, u will need to master the cornmeal and pizza peel slide off onto the stone....but thats part of the fun. and a great burnt cheesy mess if you screw up..trust me i know!!! Also once i went to Loos recipe with the dough calculator and used the scale when makign the dough, the crust was much crisper as opposed to my volume estimation trials prior.

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"My Doctor says I swallow a lot of aggression. Along with a lot of pizzas!!"

i now read and saw you are using the scale! didnt see that! so yeah maybe yours is off! when i was doing volume measurements mine was too wet too! and i had to keep adding flour. now using the scale it is really pretty dry with some flour not incorporated as Loos says in his original post. very very scrappy!

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"My Doctor says I swallow a lot of aggression. Along with a lot of pizzas!!"

i now read and saw you are using the scale! didnt see that! so yeah maybe yours is off! when i was doing volume measurements mine was too wet too! and i had to keep adding flour. now using the scale it is really pretty dry with some flour not incorporated as Loos says in his original post. very very scrappy!

Yes, it turned out to be the scale. I kept putting the same empty pot on and the measurement kept changing by as much as 60g. I tossed it and bough another one and now the measurement is stable.

I have tried using a stone with a warm up time of 1 hour at 500(highest setting the oven will go) and the same thing happens. Plus I don't like the way a stone effects the Chicago thin crust and prefer the cutter pan I have. The opening of the oven door towards the end works but I dislike having to pay so much attention to it and that's why I decided on par baking for a few minutes while I setup the toppings.

thats great! Sounds like you got a recipe! i have almost always used a stone, what is it you like better about the pan crusts you make? if you dont mind, i may have to try that again! do you like the texture better? etc.! thanks for your insights!

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"My Doctor says I swallow a lot of aggression. Along with a lot of pizzas!!"

oh yeah...checked out the stone i mentioned at williamssonoma and its now 42 bucks. its 14" x 16" i think. pretty good thickness 1/4 inch? anyone have a better deal? better stone? no research necessary! just off the top of your head!

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"My Doctor says I swallow a lot of aggression. Along with a lot of pizzas!!"

thats great! Sounds like you got a recipe! i have almost always used a stone, what is it you like better about the pan crusts you make? if you dont mind, i may have to try that again! do you like the texture better? etc.! thanks for your insights!

Yes, the texture of the stone provides a dryer crust than the cutter pan. That's the best way I can put it, maybe someone else can explain it better.

My stones are at least 1/2" in thickness. Williams Sonoma normally sells very good products, but in this case I think you could do better. A fibrament or soap-stone would be ideal, imo.

i mis-represented williamsonoma when i said 1/4 inch. it is a 1/2 " stone, pulled out the tapemeasure. for 50 bucks thereson it has been great soo far. it is getting stained nicely!!! but you have some great recommendations. whats your favorite right now?? thanks!!

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"My Doctor says I swallow a lot of aggression. Along with a lot of pizzas!!"

Yes, the texture of the stone provides a dryer crust than the cutter pan. That's the best way I can put it, maybe someone else can explain it better.

thanks! great explanation! no worries!!! i am a dry thin crust guy right now, so the stone is working for me, but i love all pizza and am totally going to try the pan or disck? for this recipe! I may never have eaten a pizza with the texture you describe! i'm stoked! but for the record. the new york pizza people drive me nuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ive had your best...i am not into it!!! heh heh! chicago is the best.....thick or thin......

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"My Doctor says I swallow a lot of aggression. Along with a lot of pizzas!!"

thanks! great explanation! no worries!!! i am a dry thin crust guy right now, so the stone is working for me, but i love all pizza and am totally going to try the pan or disck? for this recipe! I may never have eaten a pizza with the texture you describe! i'm stoked! but for the record. the new york pizza people drive me nuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ive had your best...i am not into it!!! heh heh! chicago is the best.....thick or thin......

I would have to agree,Although NY pizza is good it still #3 for me. I prefer Chicago 1st, followed by New Haven 2nd, and NY 3rd. It's usually which ever one a person grew up with that they tend to prefer. I've actually listened to people tell me that Papa johns is their favorite pizza

I bought my cutter pstk cutter pan off of pizza tools.com. I think you might like the results on this thin crust recipe, plus it makes handling the pizza a whole lot easier.

i mis-represented williamsonoma when i said 1/4 inch. it is a 1/2 " stone, pulled out the tapemeasure. for 50 bucks thereson it has been great soo far. it is getting stained nicely!!! but you have some great recommendations. whats your favorite right now?? thanks!!

I think a 1/2" stone is okay. I have 4 stones but the ones I prefer are the 1" soap stone and the 1" fibrament. Either one works fine for me. The Fibrament stone requires more care in handling as it will crack if any moisture gets to it and you crank up the heat.

So I finally got to try the dough wiht the 1/3 milk substitution you guys were discussing.

It was much better with the milk. I eyeballed the 1/3 amount, and mixed the milk and water in the same amount (by weight) I would normally use water. I thought it browned a little bit better, the inside was a little more "airy", more crispy, and seemed to have more air pockets. Very good, I'll probably use milk every time now.

BTW, I am cooking these in a 14" cutter pan from pizzatools, I have not tried a stone yet, maybe when the weather, and kitchen is a little cooler.

I also tried a 12 hour rise in the fridge. The 12 hours in the fridge didn't do much for flavor, I had much better results with 20 hours in the fridge.

One question with adding the milk... is there any problem in doing a longer room temp. rise? The reason I ask is I was worried about the milk going bad, or does it not matter when it's mixed in dough. I want to try some longer room-temp rises in a sealed container. I made this thin crust last weekend (without the milk) and let it rise for 8 hours and got better flavor, I'd like to try it with milk and an even longer room temp rise.

So, I finally got a chance to try this out last night since the weather's been cooler and we finally got a stand mixer. I don't have a kitchen scale, so I had to convert the values from the dough tool to volume measurements using the uncle salmon tool. I also docked the skin before topping and baked on a preheated at 550* stone for about 8 minutes. I topped the pizza with sausage and mushrooms. The one thing that stands out is that my crust doesn't have that thicker, airy quality that everyone else's seems to have. Maybe I rolled it out too thin, or perhaps it's the docking or the volume vs. weight measurements. I'll try this again with a scale and without docking and see what kind of results I get. I suppose it could be a high altitude effect as well, but I'm really not sure. Any advice is also appreciated. I got only one crappy picture of the finished pie, but I'll attach it anyway.

Upon further review of the recipe, I think I did roll it out a bit too much. Perhaps it was my obsession with trying to make sure I got it out to that 14" size. I look forward to trying this one again, though. I do have one question on this one w/r/t handling of the yeast. Is it better to stir in the yeast after dissolving the salt in the water, or just to let it sit in the water prior to adding some flour? Or, perhaps it does not matter.

Hey even if its not the best picture and wasnt exactly on your target. looks really good!!! makes me hungry! was your bottom crisp? i do 550 on a stone and i need about 10 min on the nose. i also do find a little thicker skin added a little more airyness. i follow loos recipe and i always dissolved the salt in the water and and then added the yeast. some people say it may kill the yeast but it always seems to bloom and it rises fine. i was a little worried on my milk substitution try, that the cold milk may deactivate the yeast? so i warmed it a bit in the microwave out of paranoia before adding. seemed fine. sometimes there's an attempted dough takeover in the fridge in the morning. i really like the slight beer flavor i get in the dough after its ages a few days in the fridge.

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"My Doctor says I swallow a lot of aggression. Along with a lot of pizzas!!"

It definitely tasted about as good as it looks. The bottom turned out nice and crispy, and I think the difference in our times has more to do with how thin my skin was prior to going in the oven.

I guess my main thing with the yeast is that the dough rose fine, but not quite as much as I initially expected it to. I think next time instead of physically stirring it in with the salty water, I will just drop it in and let it sit for a few minutes before adding some flour. I feel like perhaps some of the yeast was damaged by stirring it in this case. An overnight cold ferment sounds like it might be worth a try as well. Regardless, I have high hopes for the next time around.